Educational Foundations
Fourth Edition
“The educator has the duty of not being neutral.”
Paulo Freire, We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change
Educational Foundations
An Anthology of Critical Readings
Fourth Edition
Editors
Alan S. Canestrari
Roger Williams University
Bruce A. Marlowe
University of South Carolina Beaufort
Los Angeles
London
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Singapore
Washington DC
Melbourne
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Canestrari, Alan S., editor. | Marlowe, Bruce A., editor.
Title: Educational foundations : an anthology of critical readings / Alan S. Canestrari, Roger Williams University, Bruce A. Marlowe, University of South Carolina.
Description: Fourth edition. | Thousand Oaks, Calif. : SAGE, [2021] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020015505 | ISBN 9781544388168 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Critical pedagogy. | Teaching. | Teachers.
Classification: LCC LC196 .E393 2021 | DDC 370.11/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020015505
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Preface
Since the publication of the last edition of this anthology, Barack Obama succeeded George W. Bush as president of the United States. They both promised a better education “deal” for children and their families. Bush promised to close the “achievement gap” with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), euphemistically referred to as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Eight years later, Barack Obama was elected president in the midst of a recession. As part of a nationwide stimulus package, Obama created a competitive grant incentive program for the states called Race to the Top. States could be granted money if they complied with the prescribed reform and or “school turnaround” interventions set forth in the administration’s educational vision. Did much change for children and their families?
Diane Ravitch, a former undersecretary of education in the Bush administration, once a supporter of the conservative educational agenda, has since become an outspoken critic of Bush’s “Texas deal” and Obama’s “deal.” In an interview about her book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, she told about her dramatic about-face and remarked, “The Obama administration, although it promised change when it came to office, in effect [has] picked up precisely the same themes as the George W. Bush administration, which are testing and choice—and I think we’re on the wrong track.”
It is now 2020 and we have a new president who boasts of his “deal” artistry. Is education on the right track now? Does the “Trump Education Deal” signal any real departure from the two previous administrations? If Trump’s appointment of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education is any indication, then the answer is . . . no. DeVos, a leading school-choice advocate, has been criticized for her lack of experience as a public school education administrator, a public school backer, or a public school parent for that matter. Her positions are clear. She opposes teachers’ unions and collective bargaining, supports the deregulation of charter schools, and favors the expansion of vouchers and continued testing. Status quo preserved.
More than ever, educational decisions are based on political calculations.
